May 22, 2013
Featured Entrepreneurs Frederic Thackeray-Vincent and Zoheb Iqbal, co-founders of A Door For
A Door For is an innovative startup co-founded by Frederick Thackeray-Vincent and Zoheb Iqbal who met one another when they both decided to attend the School for Creative Startups in 2012.
What’s the name of your business and what promise does it make to customers?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: It’s called A Door For. We promise to help landlords earn extra revenue from the space they own by hosting creative projects (such as films, photo shoots, and business events).
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: For people searching for locations, A Door For promises to provide an easy way to search for, find, and negotiate terms for amazing locations with landlords in London.
What made you decide to start your business?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: Having worked as a location manager and scout for feature films and commercials I realized that the tools at my disposal were expensive, inefficient, and perpetually out of date. I wanted to provide a better solution.
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: My work in architecture led to the discovery that many spaces around London are unused and vacant a lot of the time. There’s a clear lack of dialogue between the communities around these spaces and the landlords who own them. It made sense to find a way to facilitate better use of these locations through online tools.
What made you decide to enroll in School for Startups a year ago?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: A podcast. I was listening to the Monocle Entrepreneurs Podcast and Doug was doing a short interview about the course. For me, the opportunity to see what I was doing wrong or right in my business by comparing notes with others in a similar position sounded like an invaluable opportunity.
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: I heard about School for Creative Startups through a talk they gave at the Google campus. The value proposition behind the network of expertise was what appealed most to me, which is why I enrolled.
What meaningful answers did you discover in working with Doug Richard?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: I met my now business partner on the course and that’s been hugely important.
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: Both understanding the value of coming together and the support in how to go about aligning our interests while balancing the investment of both parties was something Doug really helped us with.
What meaningful and useful knowledge have you acquired over the last year through School for Creative Startups?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: All sorts of stuff… really too much to list. De-mystifying business terms and processes was a very good subject early on. Learning how to make an audience engage with your presentation and understanding market channels and strategies were all important topics for us.
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: School for Creative Startups offers working entrepreneurs a plethora of mentors and experts, all with expertise in their own industries. Hearing their advice and learning from their business stories has been incredible.
Which classes have had the biggest impact on you and your business?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: Presentation & pitching. I think we spent a whole weekend perfecting our pitch after that workshop.
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: Being a web based business, we found the Web Fuelled Business day incredible. School for Creative Startups had some great speakers & covered a lot of ground relevant to our industry.
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: And the crowd negotiation exercise on the very last day was an eye opener. In fact that entire day has completely changed the way I think about and approach a negotiation, fiscal or otherwise!
How has having access to business support and mentoring day in and day out helped you and your business?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: Simply knowing it was there gave us courage and confidence in what we were doing. We both found that as the course progressed we were getting advice and help in precisely the areas that needed attention at the time. The synergy was surprising and fantastic. Also, Doug let us and other students know about the opportunity for startup loans. We applied, and now can fund our project. We’re planning on launching this summer.
Which of your products are you proudest of? Why?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: I personally am very proud of what our brand promises customers. The assets and designs we’ve created to support that message have taken a lot of energy to develop, and now I think they really strike the right balance of professionalism and approachability.
Zoheb Zafar Iqbal: Our website, which is currently in development, will serve as a business platform that supports thousands of people in the months and years to come.
Do you feel you’ve developed relationships through this program that will help you in the months and years to come?
Frederick Thackeray-Vincent: Absolutely. I gained a partner in business that I can work with in the long term and I now know a ton of amazing people in charge of fantastic businesses across loads of sectors.